A major move for SFI?

FOREST CERTIFICATION PILOT ACHIEVES SUCCESS IN MAINE

1.4 Million Acres/570,000 Hectares Certified to SFI Standard 

   

WASHINGTON - An innovative pilot project involving Time Inc., Hearst Enterprises, National Geographic Society, Verso Paper Corp. and Sappi Fine Paper North America has led to 790,000 acres/320,000 hectares of additional forest lands being certified to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI®) Standard in Maine.

The pilot was an extension of an earlier project involving Time Inc., Hearst Enterprises, Verso Paper Corp., Sappi Fine Paper North America and NewPage Corporation that led to 620,000 acres/250,000 hectares certified to the SFI 2010-2014 Standard in 2010 - bringing the total of additional lands certified to the SFI Standard to 1.4 million acres/570,000 hectares.

"The companies involved are among a growing number of corporate leaders who know certification is key to responsible sourcing of forest products, and embrace credible standards such as SFI," SFI President and CEO Kathy Abusow said today. "And Maine is just a starting point - they are already looking for ways to expand supply options and promote responsible forest practices by encouraging more landowners to certify their forests to the SFI Standard."

Increasing demand for SFI-certified products is also fueled by the fact it is recognized by respected organizations around the world, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the UK government's Central Point of Expertise on Timber, and the Competition Bureau of Canada's Environmental Claims: A Guide for Industry and Advertisers. Just last month, the SFI forest standard was endorsed by PEFC International.

The first phase of the Maine pilot project improved access to SFI certification by creating a template so medium-sized landowners could develop, implement and coordinate management plans in a simpler and more consistent manner. The second phase included additional landowners and land managers such as Katahdin Forest Management LLC and Huber Resources Corporation.

"The pilot showed us how the SFI standard's training and outreach requirements can help us manage our lands responsibly so our forests can deliver environmental values and support local jobs today and into the future," said Kenny Fergusson, Maine woodlands forester for Huber Resources Corporation."

Through forest certification, forest operations meet requirements set out in an independent standard such as the SFI 2010-2014 Standard, and this is verified by a third-party audit. The SFI Standard is based on 14 core principles that promote sustainable forest management, including measures to protect water quality, biodiversity, wildlife habitat, species at risk, and Forests with Exceptional Conservation Value. About 10 million family forest owners account for more than 60 percent of private forest lands in the United States.The State of Maine has more than seven million acres/ 2.8 million hectares certified to the SFI Standard.

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About SFI Inc.

SFI Inc. (www.sfiprogram.org) is an independent non-profit charitable organization, and is solely responsible for maintaining, overseeing and improving the internationally recognized Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) program. Across North America, more than 195 million acres/ 79 million hectares are certified to the SFI forest management standard, making it the largest single forest standard in the world. SFI chain-of-custody certification tells buyers the percentage of fiber from certified forests, certified sourcing and/or post-consumer recycled content. The SFI program's unique fiber sourcing requirements promote responsible forest management on all suppliers' lands. SFI Inc. is governed by a three-chamber board of directors representing environmental, social and economic sectors equally.

symbols and ccertification

Evidence does exist that standards are beginning to make progress, and one need only look to the ongoing evolution and extraordinary success of the United States Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED Green Building Rating System to demonstrate that.

With over 40,000 certified and registered projects all over the world in under ten years, the USGBC has achieved one of its primary stated goals – “to transform the built environment marketplace”. Today, thanks to LEED, environmental attribute based competition is fierce throughout the built environment value chain and some architectural firms have essentially ‘forgotten’ how to design non-LEED buildings. Furthermore, the US government and many municipalities in the US now require that all public buildings be built to the LEED standard. To be sure, greenwashing does occur in this sector, but with much less frequency now that green building specifiers are more knowledgeable and are asking better, more informed, questions. The power of influence has also spurred the development of several LEED- compatible product sector specific standards for carpet, furniture, textiles and other products. Solid evidence that the needle is moving!

In the end, the importance of a well informed populous cannot be overstated. Sustainability, in all its dimensions, is an incredibly complex topic that defies measurement by one standard set of criteria. In fact, I would argue that it is the most complex (and most important) thing that we humans have ever tried to measure. Done well, standards, labels and certifications are tools that can help consumers and businesses make better, more sustainable, decisions. Continued ‘movement of the needle’ will be dependent on both being well informed and engaged.

Mark LaCroix Carbon Neutral Company

Certififcations and symbols

Evidence does exist that standards are beginning to make progress, and one need only look to the ongoing evolution and extraordinary success of the United States Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED Green Building Rating System to demonstrate that.

With over 40,000 certified and registered projects all over the world in under ten years, the USGBC has achieved one of its primary stated goals – “to transform the built environment marketplace”. Today, thanks to LEED, environmental attribute based competition is fierce throughout the built environment value chain and some architectural firms have essentially ‘forgotten’ how to design non-LEED buildings. Furthermore, the US government and many municipalities in the US now require that all public buildings be built to the LEED standard. To be sure, greenwashing does occur in this sector, but with much less frequency now that green building specifiers are more knowledgeable and are asking better, more informed, questions. The power of influence has also spurred the development of several LEED- compatible product sector specific standards for carpet, furniture, textiles and other products. Solid evidence that the needle is moving!

Evidence does exist that standards are beginning to make progress, and one need only look to the ongoing evolution and extraordinary success of the United States Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED Green Building Rating System to demonstrate that.

In the end, the imp

With over 40,000 certified and registered projects all over the world in under ten years, the USGBC has achieved one of its primary stated goals – “to transform the built environment marketplace”. Today, thanks to LEED, environmental attribute based competition is fierce throughout the built environment value chain and some architectural firms have essentially ‘forgotten’ how to design non-LEED buildings. Furthermore, the US government and many municipalities in the US now require that all public buildings be built to the LEED standard. To be sure, greenwashing does occur in this sector, but with much less frequency now that green building specifiers are more knowledgeable and are asking better, more informed, questions. The power of influence has also spurred the development of several LEED- compatible product sector specific standards for carpet, furniture, textiles and other products. Solid evidence that the needle is moving!

In the end, the Evidence does exist that standards are beginning to make progress, and one need only look to the ongoing evolution and extraordinary success of the United States Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED Green Building Rating System to demonstrate that.

With over 40,000 certified and registered projects all over the world in under ten years, the USGBC has achieved one of its primary stated goals – “to transform the built environment marketplace”. Today, thanks to LEED, environmental attribute based competition is fierce throughout the built environment value chain and some architectural firms have essentially ‘forgotten’ how to design non-LEED buildings. Furthermore, the US government and many municipalities in the US now require that all public buildings be built to the LEED standard. To be sure, greenwashing does occur in this sector, but with much less frequency now that green building specifiers are more knowledgeable and are asking better, more informed, questions. The power of influence has also spurred the development of several LEED- compatible product sector specific standards for carpet, furniture, textiles and other products. Solid evidence that the needle is moving!

In the end, the importance of a well informed populous cannot be overstated. Sustainability, in all its dimensions, is an incredibly complex topic that defies measurement by one standard set of criteria. In fact, I would argue that it is the most complex (and most important) thing that we humans have ever tried to measure. Done well, standards, labels and certifications are tools that can help consumers and businesses make better, more sustainable, decisions. Continued ‘movement of the needle’ will be dependent on both being well informed and engaged.

Mark LaCroix Carbon Neutral Companyimportance of a well informed populous cannot be overstated. Sustainability, in all its dimensions, is an incredibly complex topic that defies measurement by one standard set of criteria. In fact, I would argue that it is the most complex (and most important) thing that we humans have ever tried to measure. Done well, standards, labels and certifications are tools that can help consumers and businesses make better, more sustainable, decisions. Continued ‘movement of the needle’ will be dependent on both being well informed and engaged.

Mark LaCroix Carbon Neutral Company

ortance of a well informed populous cannot be overstated. Sustainability, in all its dimensions, is an incredibly complex topic that defies measurement by one standard set of criteria. In fact, I would argue that it is the most complex (and most important) thing that we humans have ever tried to measure. Done well, standards, labels and certifications are tools that can help consumers and businesses make better, more sustainable, decisions. Continued ‘movement of the needle’ will be dependent on both being well informed and engaged.

Mark LaCroix Carbon Neutral Company

Conservation and Conservatism - getting past the political issue of climate change

As is the case with so many issues in our society today, climate change has, it seems, become a political football. At the extremes we have those observers who denounce climate change [especially the contribution made by man] as a hoax and at the other end of the spectrum those who believe that galloping climate change will bring ruin to the planet far sooner than any scientist has predicted. Broadly speaking, it seems that the right does not accept that man has much responsibility for changes in the climate, which, if they exist at all, are the result of normal trends on our planet and the left believes that human behavior is, generally speaking, responsible for the changes that have occurred in our climate and which some predict will bring massive problems in the not-too-distant future. This division appears to be particularly true in our country for some reason, and yet there can be no question that for corporate America at the very least, the issue of climate change has become a major part of corporate commitment and attitude. Something seems to be at odds here! Perhaps it is that we sometimes get conservatism and conservation mixed up!

Even a cursory look at any major corporation in the United States, reveals that conservation [whether ascribed to climate change or simply to being stewards of the planet's resources] is at the center of Corporate Social Responsibility today. The implications of this massive change in the last five years have been felt by suppliers all over the world. The Wal-Mart scorecard, the P &G scorecard. for example, and many others, have impacted the sustainability performance of hundreds of thousands of companies across the globe. As a consequence, all links in the supply chain, from raw materials through distribution, are, or will be, forced to look at their own sustainability in order to fit in with the requirements of those giant corporations so frequently at the end of the supply chain.

The main market driver for this change is ultimately public opinion. Whether this is most effectively expressed by pressure in the media [in their view a reflection of public opinion], by younger generations more attuned to environmental issues, academic institutions or major conservation groups is not entirely clear. What is clear, however, is that corporate America, academic America and governmental America [through cities and states legislation] have responded with far-reaching programs for sustainability in greater quality and quantity than we have ever experienced before.

Whether politicians and individuals can or cannot agree that man has a significant responsibility for climate change, it would appear that there is unanimity that we have responsibility for environmental management in the sensible and sustainable use of our resources. The business implications for large and small companies are obvious. The sooner they become more sustainable, the more chance they have of competing in the burgeoning sustainability market. The  truth is that sustainability can bring large cost savings through the conservation of energy, the reuse of materials and the continued review of those products which are shown to be more damaging to the environment than others and it would be naïve not to recognize that this is one of the major market drivers, that has worked to expand the sustainability market so significantly.

Finally, there is a question that is asked in every expanding market. Will it last? The idea that sustainability might be a ‘passing phase’ has surely been laid to rest and the likelihood is that for at least the near term, the demand for sustainable products and performance will grow significantly until sustainability becomes a way of life. The focus will doubtless move to other centers but the practices will surely remain.

Finally: Simplified Recycling Labels Are on Their Way

So you bought a coffee in a disposable cup (it happens) and you want to recycle it. What do you do? Who the hell knows. The fact that the plastic lid has a recycling symbol on it doesn't necessarly mean you can, in fact, recycle it. It depends on what kind of plastic it is, indicated by that tiny, mysterious number printed inside the recycling logo, and where you live. Some kinds of plastic are recyled almost everywhere; some, like Styrofoam, are rarely ever recycled. Plastics without a number, like utensils, can't be recycled at all. It's confusing.

To address that problem, the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, a project of the nonprofit group GreenBlue, is working to redesign recycling labels. The group's current proposal features four labels: "widely recycled," "limited recycling," "not recycled," and "store drop-off." Unlike the current system, this gives consumers clear, general guidelines, in words. For materials that can only be recycled in certain places, the "limited recycling" label can carry an additional note that might, for example, advice consumers to "check locally."

This isn't just some design exercise. The Sustainable Packaging Coalition has around 200 member businesses, including everyone from Burt's Bees to Nike to Proctor & Gamble. Once the label designs are finalized, ten of these member businesses (no word on which ones yet) are going to participate in a nine-month, nationwide pilot project. You should start seeing the new labels on shelves in early October. The eventual goal is to make them the new standard.

See the SPC's draft recycling label designs

To make logging illegal, Liberia will give every tree a barcode

The African country of Liberia is blessed with lush rainforests full of pygmy hippos, Diana monkeys, duikers, and lots of valuable trees. But when Charles Taylor started plundering the forests to fund his forces in the country's civil war, the UN placed sanctions on Liberian timber.

Now President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf wants to establish a legitimate timber trade to boost the Liberian economy. To that end, she has signed a deal with the European Union that would require companies bringing Liberian lumber into the EU to have proof that it's legal. To make that possible, every legally harvestable tree and every cut log would have to carry a barcode that makes it traceable. Helveta, a British company that specializes in timber supply chain management, has invented the tracking system.

Even with the barcodes, there will still be challenges. Making sure harvests stay within sustainable limits will be difficult and corruption may still undermine the integrity of the system. But some think Liberia could be pioneering a new model for legal, sustainable logging. According to Frank Hawkins, who leads Conservation International's efforts in Africa, “Liberia has an opportunity to show the world how it is done.”

The barcode, that symbol of commercialism, could become a treehugger's best friend.

2013 Sustainability Tipping Point

The growth of investment in sustainable business programs will be between 50 and 100 percent higher in 2013 than in 2011, according to new projections by analyst firm Verdantix.

The firm predicts that the global sustainable business market will reach a “tipping point” in 2013, based on an analysis of the spending patterns of more than 2,500 global firms. Spend on sustainability programs by Australian, Canadian, U.K. and U.S. companies with over $1 billion in sales will hit $60 billion in 2013, Verdantix predicts.

“Spending on sustainable business initiatives such as energy efficiency, sustainability assurance and cleantech innovation is positively correlated with global economic growth,” Verdantix director David Metcalfe said. “By 2013 a powerful mix of market drivers, led by the forecasted global economic rebound, will significantly increase strategic investment in sustainability programmes. The arrival of the 2013 tipping point will be good news for cash-strapped cleantech innovators and struggling sustainability entrepreneurs.”

Verdantix said its analysis is based on four years of research on sustainable business market trends and the firm’s proprietary Critical Moments market size and forecast models.

Next generation wants to go Paperless!

 My name is Richmond Owusu, I am a junior marketing major and an entrepreneur at Howard University. I would like to get in contact with you and hopefully introduce my project to your company. I am currently looking for a sponsorship to help our project with funding . Our project eliminates the usage of paper for all college students and provides and eco-friendly environment on all  campuses. We currently have a prototype version of the website called richuboard.com . Please feel free to visit the website and contact me by email or you can reach me on my cell phone (202)507-2121.

Thank you
Richmond Owusu 

Printers are weary and wary of FSC and SFI

Printers  are so weary of FSC and SFI

For many printers, particularly medium and smaller printers that I speak to on a regular basis, the honeymoon [if ever there was one] with certification from FSC and SFI is well and truly over, at least for the moment.

While it is absolutely true that many major corporations stipulate that their printers must be FSC or SF I certified, this is not true of the majority of clients in the printing industry and while the trend has certainly been upwards it is by no means generally spread across the markets. The cost of acquiring certification and, in particular, the annual audit fees, have long been a bone of contention for medium and smaller sized printers and the economic downturn has fueled that view.

Printers tell me that they no longer see a benefit nor do they see a long-term change in the market toward greater demand. In fairness FSC have recently introduced a "group certification program" for printers which will bring the prices down significantly. [This was in fact an idea that I suggested to SF I several years back but was blocked because FSC international was unable at that time to put it in practice]. The problem always was that both FSC and SF I were forestry programs that were being applied to the printing industry and while this had perfect sense at its base, it did not take to account the reality of the world of print.

But, and this is a very big but, this is not to suggest in any way that the market for sustainable print is not a growing requirement of the total sustainability market. The problem has been that end-users have had no alternative way of measuring the sustainability of printers with any ease. The mistaken idea { and a mistake that is made throughout the supply chain] that FSC or SF I certification somehow makes printers "green" is simply untrue but unless the end user has a well-informed checklist of what a sustainable printer actually looks like and does there is no easy way to judge those aspects of print performance.

Over the last two or three years, as the sustainable market has grown, there have been various attempts made by bodies like the PIA [Printing Industries of America] and Print Buyers Online [PBOL] to deal with this problem. After all it makes sense that printers should play a leading role in the determination of what is genuinely sustainable print. Arguably the most successful program is the SGPP [Sustainable Green Printing Partnership] which is literally a program designed by printers for the industry. While the costs of acheiving SGPP certification are significantly lower than FSC or SFI [neither of which may I say again have anything to do with sustainable print], the administration at this point appears to be somewhat time-consuming and in an economic downturn this is something that should be hammered out between area printing representatives and the SGPP. Finally that group will have to find a way to persuade corporate end-users that this is the best way to confirm that their printers are practicing environmentally responsible print. FSC and SFI can tell you how hard it is to crack the end user market, but the regional print associations could be well advised to try to steer this one. I think it is very much in their interests.!

Printers are weary and wary of SFI and FSC

For many printers, particularly medium and smaller printers that I speak to on a regular basis, the honeymoon [if ever there was one] with certification from FSC and SFI is well and truly over, at least for the moment.

While it is absolutely true that many major corporations stipulate that their printers must be FSC or SF I certified, this is not true of the majority of clients in the printing industry and while the trend has certainly been upwards it is by no means generally spread across the markets. The cost of acquiring certification and, in particular, the annual audit fees, have long been a bone of contention for medium and smaller sized printers and the economic downturn has fueled that view.

Printers tell me that they no longer see a benefit nor do they see a long-term change in the market toward greater demand. In fairness FSC have recently introduced a "group certification program" for printers which will bring the prices down significantly. [This was in fact an idea that I suggested to SF I several years back but was blocked because FSC international was unable at that time to put it in practice]. The problem always was that both FSC and SF I were forestry programs that were being applied to the printing industry and while this had perfect sense at its base, it did not take to account the reality of the world of print.

But, and this is a very big but, this is not to suggest in any way that the market for sustainable print is not a growing requirement of the total sustainability market. The problem has been that end-users have had no alternative way of measuring the sustainability of printers with any ease. The mistaken idea { and a mistake that is made throughout the supply chain] that FSC or SF I certification somehow makes printers "green" is simply untrue but unless the end user has a well-informed checklist of what a sustainable printer actually looks like and does there is no easy way to judge those aspects of print performance.

Over the last two or three years, as the sustainable market has grown, there have been various attempts made by bodies like the PIA [Printing Industries of America] and Print Buyers Online [PBOL] to deal with this problem. After all it makes sense that printers should play a leading role in the determination of what is genuinely sustainable print. Arguably the most successful program is the SGPP [Sustainable Green Printing Partnership] which is literally a program designed by printers for the industry. While the costs of acheiving SGPP certification are significantly lower than FSC or SFI [neither of which may I say again have anything to do with sustainable print], the administration at this point appears to be somewhat time-consuming and in an economic downturn this is something that should be hammered out between area printing representatives and the SGPP. Finally that group will have to find a way to persuade corporate end-users that this is the best way to confirm that their printers are practicing environmentally responsible print. FSC and SFI can tell you how hard it is to crack the end user market, but the regional print associations could be well advised to try to steer this one. I think it is very much in their interests.!

What to Do When Forest Ethics Comes Knocking? | Buildings | GreenBiz.com

What to Do When Forest Ethics Comes Knocking? | Buildings | GreenBiz.com

Sustainable Packaging Coalition | Member List

Sustainable Packaging Coalition | Member List

Forest Ethics Continues to Peddle Pulp Fiction as SFI Continues to Grow « Sustainable Forestry Initiative Newsroom

Forest Ethics Continues to Peddle Pulp Fiction as SFI Continues to Grow « Sustainable Forestry Initiative Newsroom

What will be the outcome of the fight between Forest Ethics and SFI?

It is perfectly clear that SFI [Sustainable Forestry Initiative] has come under the full glare of the Forest Ethics spotlight. Office Depot, Staples, Victoria's Secret and Sears have all been subjected to the kind of scrutiny from Forest Ethics which SFI is now facing. The major difference is that it seems there is little SFI can do to effectively rebut the criticism from Forest Ethics that SFI is guilty of 'greenwashing'.

This is a hugely important issue for the timber industry and its allied industries as well as US paper. The majority of forests certified in the United States are certified under the SFI standards and while the FSC [Forest Stewardship Council] program is growing significantly and has the full and, occasionally, exclusive approval of most well known conservation groups groups -  like Forest Ethics, the fact is that, at the very least in pure commercial terms, SFI is a widely accepted practice in the United States and is incidentally approved by the international certification umbrella program PEFC [Program for the Endorsementt of Forestry Certification]. This is not a small consideration as most European organizations with sustainability programs reaching into the forests accept PEFC.Unlike FSC, SFI is an exclusively USA based program.

I know several individual members of Forest Ethics, as indeed I do at SFI, and I know all of those people to be honest and to hold the very best interests of United States forests very closely indeed. There is equally no doubt that SFI can do little to combat the kind of attack which Forest Ethics has chosen to launch. The program is designed to persuade end-users of forestry products, be it wood products or paper, that only FSC is an acceptable forestry-based program. It would be much easier if the criteria which are offered by Forest Ethics were clear and simple to either accept or counter. They are not. For example the Forest Ethics suggestion that SFI is "dominated by members of the industry" and that SFI appoints members of minor conservationist groups to its board as a "sop" to its conservation bona fides may be true, but, only depending on your point of view.

SFI quite rightly points out that with 90% of the world's forests without any form of management, it may seem small minded to attack them when there is so much else to be done in the world of forestry. It is probably true that many of the fundamentals of their program are at least as respectable and respected by conservation groups as well as members of the relevant industries.

FSC meanwhile remains silent, quite content to remain quiet behind the Forest Ethics assault on SFI. In my opinion  having at least two certification programs available to forests in the United States makes pure economic, practical and political sense . Is it too much to hope that SFI and FSC could find some common ground at some point, and achieve solutions to the benefit of our society as a whole?

ForestEthics : Protect Forests and Our Climate : Major US companies join fight against greenwash

ForestEthics : Protect Forests and Our Climate : Major US companies join fight against greenwash